Original post by derek doherty on September 12, 2019
https://journals.lww.com/jan/FullText/2018/04000/Does_Parental_Control_Work_With_Smartphone.8.aspx
As a parent of an 11 year old I am keenly aware that one of the biggest influences on how she uses her mobile phone is the behaviour I model. I am not always the best role model, and now I have got the perfect excuse…I am on my phone because I am working on my course!
Much easier than modeling good practices is installing parental controls on your child’s phone. It feels responsible, it feels like a smart solution, it’s kind of comforting. Does it actually help? I guess that depends on what we are hoping to achieve by installing these controls, and of course there are myriad reasons why parents do this.
I was interested to know what research there has been on the effects of parental control settings. I did not find much. But I did find the attached article interesting, if perhaps not entirely surprising.
Also, this research paper displays really well on a mobile device.
One of the findings of the study on the relationship between parental control and smartphone addiction in South Korea is that control-oriented management of children’s use of a smartphone by parents is not very effective and exacerbates smartphone addiction (Lee et al., 2018). I’m for the idea that the habit of kids’ using smartphones can not be controlled but guided by parents in a positive way. It is more beneficial for parents to help their kids develop a healthy habit of using smartphones, for example, knowledge such as information literacy, privacy protection and screen time guidelines should be instilled to kids starting from a young age.
I think you might be interested in taking a look at the 10 Best Parental Control Apps of 2020, which I came across while researching this topic. In my opinion, these apps are great when parents do have concerns over their kids’ well-being or safety. However, to what extent do parents use it and how comfortable they feel about it are a different story.
Thanks for sharing this Ceci. I agree with the focus of guiding children rather than controlling them as it more closely mirrors all other aspects of education, where we teach for the moment they don’t have us around to guide them. In my professional practice, this has been the focus with parents, teaching them how to have open dialogue with their child and cultivate a relationship of mentorship and guidance rather than control. Also beneficial to work through is helping families to “triage” the situation, often when inappropriate use of technology occurs it is a mild case and does not warrant an urgent response, however parents must also be aware of the potential for very serious situations to occur that don’t have parallels to an offline world.
One consideration I think it helpful to add to this discussion is what role should schools play in educating families on the best practices of using technology? Should schools take on the role of mentoring parents, should this be a part of normal counselling practice with students and families? What parallels do we have to other “good parenting practices” that a school supports with?
Great questions, Matt! Schools definitely need to come aboard. Many researchers believe that the media gap between the digital generation and the pre-digital generation is a challenge to education. Jenkins et al. (2006) argue that adults with their poor understanding of media environments and new modes of expression are incapable of guiding the youth (as cited in Palmgren-Neuvonen et al., 2015, p. 258). Therefore, it is important for parents, teachers and students to work together to explore the new wild world to which technology is leading us.
In my school, every year the counsellor is organizing parent education sessions as well as workshops with students. Sometimes she will bring in guest speakers, and sometimes just share useful information with the community. The most recent one is Raising Responsible Digital Learners, which was a free remote session hosted by Safer Schools Together to foster parents’ awareness and understanding of students’ safety in the remote learning world. I also recall the Screenager event last year, where students, teachers and parents were invited to view the film together, and the event was followed up with a very well-organized homeroom-based discussion. If you’re interested, here is a short trailer of the film 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQx2X0BXgZg
References
Palmgren-Neuvonen, L., Palmgren-Neuvonen, L., Jaakkola, M., Jaakkola, M., Korkeamäki, R., & Korkeamäki, R. (2015). School-context videos in janus-faced online publicity: Learner-generated digital video production going online. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 59(3), 255-274. doi:10.1080/00313831.2014.996599